Deadly Heat Wave Hits Both Sides of Atlantic 

WASHINGTON D.C. — A dangerous heat dome is settling over much of the United States this week, with "feels-like" temperatures expected to top 100–110°F for more than 200 million people through the July 4th weekend—just as Europe emerges from what researchers are calling its worst heat wave on record. NRDC experts are available to discuss the health risks, who is most exposed, and the heat protections being weakened even as the danger climbs.

Juanita Constible, NRDC senior advocate for environmental health, on protecting the workers most exposed to this heat:

“While most of us can step into the shade, millions of people will spend this heat wave roofing, farming, driving delivery trucks, and working in warehouses where the danger doesn't stop at quitting time. Heat is a known, preventable workplace hazard, and we still have no federal standard requiring employers to provide something as basic as water, rest, and shade. A handful of states have acted, but a worker's safety shouldn't depend on which side of a state line they happen to live on.”

The worker protection gap behind the forecast

Heat is the deadliest weather hazard in the United States, and there is still no enforceable federal standard requiring employers to provide water, shade, rest, or training.

• Every year, tens of thousands of U.S. workers are sickened or injured by extreme heat, and between 1992 and 2019, more than 900 workers died from heat on the job.
• OSHA proposed the first-ever federal heat-safety standard and held public hearings in 2025; OSHA’s fate is a live, high-stakes story heading into summer.
• The cost lands on employers too: OSHA conservatively estimates a single average case of heat exhaustion can cost more than $79,000.

What to watch

• Which states are moving enforceable workplace heat standards (NRDC's state tracker shows which do) and states following the footsteps of Texas and Florida by restricting cities from setting their own rules
• OSHA's next steps following its 2025 public hearings, as another high-heat summer approaches
• How will extreme heat impact workers and players during the World Cup 

Dr. Vijay Limaye, NRDC senior scientist, environmental epidemiologist, and former EPA scientist, on the health burden of extreme heat and the climate-resilience systems people rely on to survive it:

“Extreme heat is the deadliest weather there is, and what we're seeing on two continents at once is exactly what scientists have warned the climate crisis would bring. Cutting those lifelines while extreme temperatures break records isn't saving money. It's deciding who survives the summer.”

The health and economic burdens of extreme heat

• Extreme heat doesn't just cause heat stroke. It strains the heart and lungs and worsens chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease, and diabetes — and the danger compounds when nighttime temperatures stay high and the body never gets to recover, a defining feature of this week's event.
• Heat is also an air-quality emergency. Ground-level ozone — smog — forms faster in hot, sunny, stagnant air, so heat waves routinely coincide with unhealthy-air days that hit people with respiratory and heart conditions hardest. The people most at risk are older adults, pregnant people, those with chronic illness, outdoor workers, and low-income households without reliable air conditioning.
• These harms carry a measurable economic cost. Dr. Limaye leads NRDC's research valuing the health costs of heatwaves and other climate disasters and can put a dollar figure on the human toll of extreme heat. 

What to watch

• Whether federal energy bill assistance (LIHEAP) and utility shut-off protections hold up as cooling demand peaks, and how states respond
• Heat-driven smog and ozone exceedances during the dome — extreme heat as an air-pollution multiplier
• Strain on health systems: heat-related ER visits and EMS calls as the dome stalls
• How the weakening of EPA climate policies, air protections, and federal safety-net programs intersects with a record-hot summer — Dr. Limaye can speak to the Clean Air Act science he defends

Available for interviews

• Dr. Vijay Limaye (Madison, WI): climate-health science, federal air quality policies and health impacts, heat-health burden, climate and health adaptation and resilience. 
• Juanita Constible (Washington, D.C.): workplace heat standards, state and federal heat policy, community heat preparedness.

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).